huir

Forms

huir (first-person singular present huyo, first-person singular preterite hui, past participle huido)^[1] Old Spanish fuir, with the variant foir.^[2] Autoridades notes that the verb was formerly fuir.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish fuir, inherited from Vulgar Latin fugīre, the form Vulgar Latin used for the classical infinitive of Latin fugere (“to flee”).^[2][4][5][1] The Romance languages all point to this form, which is recorded from the 3rd century.^[2][6] García de Diego explains it by analogy with īre and venīre.^[7]

The same verb is Portuguese fugir, Galician fuxir, Asturian fuxir, Aragonese fuyir, Catalan fugir, French fuir, Italian fuggire and Romanian fugi.^[7][8][1]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *fugiō and to a present Proto-Indo-European *bʰug-i- (“to flee”) of the root *bʰewg-, which also gave Ancient Greek φεύγω (pheúgō, “to flee”).^[9][1]

The Latin /f-/ became the aspirated /h/ and then fell silent, as in other words; yet some writers who otherwise wrote ⟨h⟩ kept ⟨f⟩ in this verb in the early 16th century.^[2] Burgos, Soria and the Río de la Plata, where the aspirated /h/ is otherwise lost, keep it in this verb in rustic speech, and in Chile the form with ⟨f⟩ is still said.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the preterite fuxieron “they fled” in a charter of 1054; the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) has the verb too.^[2][4] In Alfonso X's Lapidario a hot, dry substance „fuye del agua” “flees from water”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Already in Alfonso X's prose the verb is used of time passing quickly and of a fleet sailing away; it could also be transitive, “to put to flight”: „uenciol & fuxol del campo” “he defeated him and drove him from the field”.^[10] Covarrubias in 1611 says that in war it usually means cowardice, and quotes the proverb más vale que digan de aquí huyó, que aquí murió.^[11] Autoridades records three senses: to run from a place, of time to pass, and to avoid something bad; it also notes the change of the vowel i to y in huyo, huye.^[3]

The Academy's 1817 dictionary has the warning ¡a huir, que azotan! “run, they're whipping!”.^[12] Its 1884 edition gave the etymology from Latin fugere and the definition still used today; the present dictionary derives the verb from Vulgar Latin fugīre.^[13][5] The pronominal huirse stresses where the flight leads rather than the act of fleeing (se huyeron al Perú), and in verse the verb is nearly always read with two syllables.^[2] In the Dominican Republic it also means “to hurry” and, of a fighting cock, to quit the fight.^[14]

Timeline

• 1054 – a charter has the preterite fuxieron.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses fuir.^[2][4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario: fuye del agua.^[10]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses the verb transitively, “to put to flight”.^[10]
• 1490 – huida and rehuir first recorded.^[4] Alonso de Palencia still writes f-.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija writes huida with h- and renders huir by Latin fugio.^[2][15]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives the forms huir, fuir and fugir.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology for the first time.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also pronominal and less often transitive) To flee, run away from someone or something to avoid harm or trouble: Los ladrones huyeron por el tejado.^[5][1]
2. To escape from a place where one is held: Dos presos huyeron anoche.^[17][1]
3. Of a thing: to move swiftly away: El velero huía de la costa.^[5]
4. Of time: to pass quickly: ¡Cómo huyen los veranos!^[5][18]
5. (also transitive) To keep away from something bad, to avoid it: Huye de las discusiones.^[5][1]

Word family

• huida
• huidizo
• huidor
• ahuyentar
• rehuir
• afufar

Related words

• fuga
• fugar
• fugitivo
• refugio
• fugaz
• prófugo
• tránsfuga
• desfogar
• Latin fugio

Usage notes

Huir is irregular: in some forms the i becomes y (huyo, huye, huya).^[1][3] The proverb a enemigo que huye, puente de plata advises letting a retreating enemy go.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 427
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 188
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. huir
5. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. huir
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fuir
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2955
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. fugere
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. huir
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1001
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 480
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 579
14. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. huir
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 364
16. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. fuir
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. huir
18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. huir